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veiled and knowing not whither we went; nor did we halt till we had left the house far behind and happened on a cook cooking, to whom said I, “Hast thou a mind to quicken dead folk?” And he said, “Come up.” So we went up into the shop, and he said, ‘Lie down.” Accordingly, we lay down and he covered us with the grass,[1] wherewith he was used to kindle [the fire] under the food.
Hardly had we settled ourselves in the place when we heard a noise of kicking [at the door] and people running right and left and questioning the cook and saying, “Hath any one passed by thee?” “Nay,” answered he; “none hath passed by me.” But they ceased not to go round about the shop till the day broke, when they turned back, disappointed. Then the cook removed the grass and said to us, “Arise, for ye are delivered from death.” So we arose, and we were uncovered, without mantle or veil; but the cook carried us up into his house and we sent to our lodgings and fetched us veils; and we repented unto God the Most High and renounced singing,[2] for indeed this was a great deliverance after stress.’
- ↑ Helfeh or helfaa (vulg. Alfa), a kind of coarse, rushy grass (Pos. multiflora), used in the East as fuel.
- ↑ Lit. “we repented to God, etc, of singing.” The practice of music, vocal and instrumental, is deprecated by the strict Muslim, in accordance with a tradition by which the Prophet is said to have expressed his disapproval of these arts.
